Small Statured Football Star is on Anti-Bullying, Pro-Kindness Crusade

“I knew something had to be done,” said Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, whose foundation was adrift without a focus.

It began when a co-worker at his foundation told the running back about how her daughter was being bullied at school. The final straw came on Easter Sunday 2012 when a 15-year-old girl in nearby Maryland took her own life after months of cyber-bullying.

“Words killed this person,” Rice said. “It’s become an epidemic.”

The 5-foot-8 running back began his crusade last year with an anti-bullying high school program and a pro-kindness rally at an outdoor amphitheater that attracted 5,000 people.

Then, in November he announced “Ray’s Links Of Kindness,” a campaign to express kind thoughts toward others and wrap those written words in a Tyvek chain to stretch for miles.